Author Archives:LR Blitzkrieg

Earlier this week Jay-Z held his B-sides concert for his fans that have subscribed to his new Tidal streaming service. while onstage he decided to do what he does best whenever attacked at let loose with an accappella to shutdown naysayers:

“I understand if you don’t understand, I figure I’m Jigga
That’s where we differ
I take what’s mine, you accept what they they give you, I get you
I don’t take no checks, I take my respect
Pharrell even told me go with the safest bet
Jimmy Iovine on for the safety net
Google dig around a crazy check
I feel like YouTube is the biggest culprit
Them n—-s pay you a tenth of what you supposed to get
You know n—-s die for equal pay right?
You know when I work I ain’t your slave right?
You know I ain’t shucking and jiving and high-fiving, and you know this ain’t back in the days right?
Well I can’t tell, how the way they killed Freddie Gray right?
Shot down Mike Brown, how they did Trey right?
Let them continue choking n—-s,
We gon’ turn style, I ain’t your token n—-.”
“You know I came in this game independent right?
Tidal, my own label, same difference
Oh, n—as is skeptical when it’s their own sh-t
You bought nine iPhones and Steve Jobs is rich
Phil Knight is worth trillions, you still bought them kicks
Spotify is nine billion, they ain’t say sh-t
Lucy you got some splainin’ to do
The only one they hatin’ on looks the same as you
That’s cool, I know they tryin’ to bamboozle you
Spendin’ millions on me to tryin’ to confuse you
I had to talk to myself, Hov you should be used to it
It’s politics as usual.”

I for one never understood the hate on Jay trying to give an alternative streaming service at a competitive price (its $9.99 people NOT $20 unless you want higher quality than anyone else is offering right now) at the same time making it so the artist has more of a stake in the profits. But it seems people who rode with Hov for years let his ability to continue to win only want to see him fall when he did something that would be a slow build instead of the instant successes they came accustomed to. Add to the fact that his competitors went on a viral campaign and threatened artist just to see him fail.

At any rate, this was a great concert that allowed him to do some songs his true fans have always wanted to see him perform rather than the hits that always got the most airplay. Not to mention the Roc-A-Fella reunion of Jay,Bleek, Chris, Neef,Freeway and beanie Sigel. That was a great moment in hip hop history I didn’t see coming.

King Kendrick stopped by the Colbert Report to rock a brand new song as the shows last musical guest before Colbert becomes the new host of Late Night as David Lettermans successor. Backed by a group of superstar musicians in their own right: singers Anna Wise & Bilal,Thundercat on bass and Terrence Martin on sax, hip hops trojan horse continues to show his conscious and political sides on the untitled track now being called “What you say“. K Dots reign over hip hop with his first album got everyone to pay attention, lets hope people continue to listen now that he has even more to say.

De lA Soul says:
What’s up! We have a new song we want to share with you. It’s called “The People” and it features the legendary Chuck D from Public Enemy.

The idea for the song came from a couple of samples, and the track’s vibe is earnest and has a pressing tone to it. The lyrics are commentaries of our struggles and successes, our weaknesses and strengths… the experiences… and trials and tribulations we have faced as human beings, a race, and as individuals. Lyrically Chuck brings a sense of authority and urgency. The power in his voice demands your attention. With Chuck on the track this is a dream come true for us.

Originally “The People” was suppose to drop in June around the same time the Chuck D/Hot 97/Peter Rosenberg situation took place. We chose to hold off and not add fuel to any fires. Our next aim was for a Black Friday release. Coincidentally the Ferguson tragedy took place, and more recently the non-indictment verdict. Somehow this song was destined to be a part of something more than just dropping a joint. We hope it will lend itself to something positive in these difficult times.

We created some merchandise for this song that is for sale (The People T-Shirt & Sweatshirt). Proceeds from the merch will be donated to two organizations: All Star Code and I Love Ferguson.

All Star Code is an organization that helps under served youth make their way into the tech industry. We’ve been building, strategizing, and working with developers for the past year, and we understand the importance of education in tech. We have a music tech company that we’ll be launching soon called Daisy (daisycollective.com/). It’s important that we have more people from our community and our culture involved in this space. We just want to do our part in making that happen and ultimately help build the future of music.

I Love Ferguson is a organization that’s helping to rebuild the town of Ferguson, MO. We feel strong about helping and supporting the small businesses that have been affected in that area.

Nice to see the entire Dipset back together doing what they do best: Talking that shit while showing that uptown flair only Harlem cats can pull off successfully. Killa, with Juelz on the hook link up with Jim Jones, Freekey Zekey and Dame Dash to film the A-Trak, Oliver and Just Blaze produced “Dipsh*ts” off Cam’ron and A-Trak’s collab EP Federal Reserve.

The Funk Doctor Spot caught a BODY on this one. One of my favorite MC’s of all time showed us exactly why we should all be excited for Muddy Waters 2. The follow up to what can be argued as his best album ever.